Okay, so, I've been going to Fallsview every once in a while now, still waiting to liquidize my full bankroll and start going several days a week. But after today, I'm honestly not sure. Buckle your seatbelt kiddies, this ride's about to get bumpy :
So, I call up to Fallsview Casino and ask to be put on 2/5 and 5/5 NL lists. I made that call around 2:30pm, I arrive at 3:30pm and find my name isn't on the list. So, after having to argue with the pit boss for a minute that I called(actually resorting to pulling out the trusty iPhone and showing him the exact call log of me calling them at 2:34pm, I'm put back on the list..."somewhere in the middle".
So, about 5:15, I finally get onto a table. So no real inconvenience, only nearly 2 hours of waiting. I'm put on table 8, and right away we have a problem. First hand I sit down some guy spills a glass of beer across the table. So now we have play halted at our table because of beer being all over it, and the dealer starts calling the pit boss over(by the way, I'd never forget this after today, he's got long blonde hair, his name is Michael), who ignores that situation that is holding up a mother fucking live game that has just paid session and now can't play a hand so he can open new tables. He's chillin' over at the opening tables, checking cards and stuff, rather than tending to slightly more pressing issues at hand. Good for him, prioritizing like a champ.
After we get up and running, a full session of 0 hands(not refunded) later, I ask the pit if he can put me on a seat change list to go to table 6 since I have a friend there and I wanna sit with him(he's a Bruins fan, I'm a Habs fan, there needed to be trash talking). As they do that, whenever I ask for that, I make sure to check for my name on the list, ensure they have the seat change put down correctly. I also, always, take stock of where my name is on that list, and in this case, I'm the 2nd table change on the list(there is one player on table 6 that wants to move to table 14). So, I sit back down.
About a half hour later, a seat opens on table 6, and I wait for a minute or two, and suddenly, some girl is picking up her chips and moving over to that table. So I go ask the pit boss what's going on, and I'll breifly summarize our conversation :
Me : "Why is that girl moving to table 6? I was top of the seat change chart..."
Pit : "She was on the seat change chart too."
Me : "She may very well have been, but I was higher on it, hence, priority. Dibs."
Pit : "Relax, you'll get the next one."
Me : "What?!?"
Pit : "Just don't worry about it, you're next!"
Me : "No. She is next."
Pit : "Dude you'll be next after her, don't worry about it."
Me : "Stop telling me to 'not worry about it', she's taking my seat, that's the long and short of it."
Pit : "Just relax and go play dude."
So, frustrated...I go to sit back down. Luckily, the girl doesn't feel like taking all the chips she had on her previous table to the new table, so she can't sit down and I'm now called over. Yay for me. Which the pit boss promptly shoves in my face with a "told you it wouldn't take long", as if that was somehow the issue...
And so time passes. I win almost a buyin with Kd/Jd vs I don't know what on a J/10/6 flop when I raised preflop and got 2 callers, then bet the flop and got raised all in and called the super-fish, board ran 9, Ace and I somehow stayed good. Not sure what he had.
After this, me and my buddy are die hard fans of baseball, and there's an interesting game in St.Louis in the 8th inning(that they get because they have the MLB Extra Innings preview for free), so my buddy goes up and asks the pit if he can change some of the stations we're watching PrimeTime Sports with Bob McCowan on(fine show, just not on mute), to that baseball game, and is promptly told that poor Michael is busy, and then ignored. Great.
So, a while later, we decide to go on meal break, and this is where all hell really breaks loose. I decide to simplify things, I'll take a table change now, play a session, then we'll grab meal buttons at the same time and go eat. And so that plan goes into effect. Surprisingly, the table change goes off without a hitch.
I get to the new table and play a session. Towards the end of the session, this young black kid whose a regular in the game(I've seen him a few times before and other regulars I recognized new him), has left the table a while ago. He's missed a big blind, and is quickly coming up to a 2nd BB missed. At that time, when he misses his 2nd Big Blind...for anyone not familiar with poker room rules, his chips are to be racked up and moved off the table, and replaced with an active player on the 36 person waiting list.
Instead, nothing happens. So a few hands later I call the pit(good old Michael) over, and alert him to the double blind since the dealer had not. Michael asks if anyone knows who the player is(commonplace since I work in a poker room I know how this works), one of his buddies says it's so and so, and immediately, the hunt is on. Rather than picking up his chips, Michael starts walking around the poker room asking if anyone has the kid's phone number. Eventually he finds someone who has it, and tells him to call the kid. By now I'm a little steamed, but fuck it I'll play along. During this time, I lose a buyin with KQ on a K/6/4 flop when someone leads, I raise, he calls, turn is a 2, he checks, I bet a ton, committing us both, and he calls, and the river is a 5, and he checks, I ship and he calls with K/3 off for a straight. So, I ask for a meal break(since it's my BB next), and the dealer starts to set the meal button up.
One problem, good old Michael has an idea. He decides, we're going to give the kid that's not here the meal button I just asked for and was having set for me. Naturally, I flip the hell out. The kid's not even supposed to be on the table anymore, he ISN'T THERE, NO ONE CAN CONTACT HIM, and yet he's now getting the meal button I FUCKING WANT, because I'm starving(hadn't eaten yet that day, woke up at 11:00am, it was now after 8:00pm). So...Michael sets the clock to a half hour(instead of the full hour, this is in his eyes, compromising with me, customer service and what not), and then thinks that's that.
Naturally that's not that, after all the previous indescretions, this one isn't going to slide. I stand up and run right over to Michael and we really go to war. He starts telling me I need to relax again, in the most condescending manner I could ever imagine(which is really what's driving my anger, because normally I'm very civil about disagreements, but just the manner he was talking to me was driving me insane and made me want to punch him in, or about the face). At this point I've lost my mind, I'm yelling at him, there are other players at the table yelling at him, and he just again in a smug voice "Jeez, you guys need to relax!", "If you worry about stuff like this now, when you're 50, you'll be 80!"
So ya, suffice it to say we have, many, many, many, many more words, and eventually I go on a meal break...come back and decide I'm just to pissed to actually play any more poker, and leave the room(while complaining to the CSM on site at the time before I go about my dear friend Michael).
So ya, good times.
Fallsview, nice action, but I don't recommend it. That place is beyond hopeless, the staff doesn't have a clue, or worse, are just down right belligerent, rude and don't care about proper rulings.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Finally back in the saddle again...
Wowie, this thing hasn't been updated in a while. Truth is for those who know me closely you know why for the most part.
Since this is a poker blog I won't go into incredible detail about everything, but suffice it to say, I've had a hard start to 2009, and frankly 2009 sucks. I've had some real bad family news regarding my dad's ongoing battle with cancer which has become a real drain on the house. Without getting too in detail, suffice it to say, he went up North for a few weeks to visit family, because he is concerned he may never be able to see them again. That's how bad that's gotten.
On a slight up note for me, I did get accepted to the College Of Sports Media in down-town Toronto, a private school run by Jim Van Horne, Elliote Friedman, David Lanys and other people from in the industry. However I'm not sure I'll even be enrolling this fall, or asking Dave for a year extension on coming because of how bad dad's health has gotten.
With all that going on, the family issues and saving for the school(which is not cheap, $35,000 in tuition for a 2 year course, plus living expenses in Toronto) I haven't been able to dedicate much time to poker.
I am glad to say that is ready to change however, I'm eagerly finally at a place personally where I'm ready to get back at poker and make it work. I remember the last time I updated I listed a bunch of personal goals for myself, things like "be making a living playing by the end of this year" and "play at least one major buyin tournament" this year, unfortunately that looks like it won't be happening, but that's fine, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade...and since lemonade is delicious that phrase always appealed to me.
So, I started my grind back up by heading on down to Fallsview Casino(which I will be frequenting now no less than 3 times a week so you can expect semi-frequent updates starting in a few weeks when this all goes into action) to play some 2/5 NL. I used to play 5/5 and even 5/10 there, but again with having to set aside like $50,000 for school, the old bankroll ain't what she used to be, so we're back to the 2/5 grind.
So finally, onto some hands on my poker blog! Yay! Oh wait, they didn't go good...bummer.
First big pot I play is shortly after sitting at the table, so I'm still $300 deep. It's a limped pot around to me in the BB and I have 88, so with 7 limps infront I give breif thought to raising, but considering how easy it is to take money off the average 2/5 player, I decide to just check instead and play fairly fit or fold against them for the session, especially with no reads. That works nicely when the flop peels A/8/2 rainbow. SB checks, I check, and it eventually checks right around to the button who bets $25 at the $40 pot. SB flats, and I decide to make a small raise to get everyone comitted relatively early, so I make it $60 to go. I know the min-raise(or basically min-raise) isn't the best play ever, but it's only exploitable against players that aren't garbage, here I can do all sorts of transparant bet sizing because the average player won't notice or think about why. Both players call. $220 in the pot. Turn is a 9. SB checks and I bet out $80. Button shoves, SB calls and I obviously call. Pot is ~$900. The SB has AQ, the button has A8. The river is an ace to fill up the A8. Presto, one buyin down.
So, after a quick rebuy there's only a few more smaller hands of note, there was alot of general bad fortune during the session. Alot of spots where I would raise with a hand like AK, AQ, and not only wiff flops but find myself OOP in multiway pots holding those cards and the flop would be too terrible to even c-bet or try and run a bluff on(K/10/8 with 2 diamonds or something).
I did win one coin flip with AK vs QQ to restore some of the loss, then wound up bluffing off alot of that restored loss in what was a great spot for me, just more bad fortune.
The hand was, I had 3s/4s on the button, there was a big fish(bad player but not necessarily a calling station, just a generally bad player) in the BB. I raised to $20, he called. Flop was Jd/7h/5d. He checked, I bet $35, he called. Turn was a great card to barrel, Ac. He checked, I bet $80, he called. The river wasn't the best card, an 8d completing a flush and a few goofy straight draws. However, he checked once again, which I knew meant he didn't have any of those hands, he was deffinitely not the type of player that would be checking back a made hand he drew to. At this point I figured my read of him being weak(a 7 or a 5) or drawing was alot more complete, because I could rule out any draw that got there on the river, and I was left with just a 7 or a 5 as his potential holdings. My only concern as I decided to bluff the river was there was an outside chance he had a hand like 8/7 which would now have to call after spiking a 2nd pair on the river(or at least probably would call given his general fishiness). So I barrelled $150 at him, and he called with 8/5. Like I said, I think my read was strong and I think it's a great spot to be barelling as the board kept running worse and worse, unfortunately he improved his hand on the river without hitting a draw to lead at me, but hit the river enough to be in check call mode instead of check fold.
All told I dumped $500, but I actually got a real motivation to get going at the live play again and get back into the swing of poker. I've been neglecting it for quite a while now, I can't wait to get back into it more fully in a few weeks. Look forward to regularily updating this blog when I start.
Since this is a poker blog I won't go into incredible detail about everything, but suffice it to say, I've had a hard start to 2009, and frankly 2009 sucks. I've had some real bad family news regarding my dad's ongoing battle with cancer which has become a real drain on the house. Without getting too in detail, suffice it to say, he went up North for a few weeks to visit family, because he is concerned he may never be able to see them again. That's how bad that's gotten.
On a slight up note for me, I did get accepted to the College Of Sports Media in down-town Toronto, a private school run by Jim Van Horne, Elliote Friedman, David Lanys and other people from in the industry. However I'm not sure I'll even be enrolling this fall, or asking Dave for a year extension on coming because of how bad dad's health has gotten.
With all that going on, the family issues and saving for the school(which is not cheap, $35,000 in tuition for a 2 year course, plus living expenses in Toronto) I haven't been able to dedicate much time to poker.
I am glad to say that is ready to change however, I'm eagerly finally at a place personally where I'm ready to get back at poker and make it work. I remember the last time I updated I listed a bunch of personal goals for myself, things like "be making a living playing by the end of this year" and "play at least one major buyin tournament" this year, unfortunately that looks like it won't be happening, but that's fine, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade...and since lemonade is delicious that phrase always appealed to me.
So, I started my grind back up by heading on down to Fallsview Casino(which I will be frequenting now no less than 3 times a week so you can expect semi-frequent updates starting in a few weeks when this all goes into action) to play some 2/5 NL. I used to play 5/5 and even 5/10 there, but again with having to set aside like $50,000 for school, the old bankroll ain't what she used to be, so we're back to the 2/5 grind.
So finally, onto some hands on my poker blog! Yay! Oh wait, they didn't go good...bummer.
First big pot I play is shortly after sitting at the table, so I'm still $300 deep. It's a limped pot around to me in the BB and I have 88, so with 7 limps infront I give breif thought to raising, but considering how easy it is to take money off the average 2/5 player, I decide to just check instead and play fairly fit or fold against them for the session, especially with no reads. That works nicely when the flop peels A/8/2 rainbow. SB checks, I check, and it eventually checks right around to the button who bets $25 at the $40 pot. SB flats, and I decide to make a small raise to get everyone comitted relatively early, so I make it $60 to go. I know the min-raise(or basically min-raise) isn't the best play ever, but it's only exploitable against players that aren't garbage, here I can do all sorts of transparant bet sizing because the average player won't notice or think about why. Both players call. $220 in the pot. Turn is a 9. SB checks and I bet out $80. Button shoves, SB calls and I obviously call. Pot is ~$900. The SB has AQ, the button has A8. The river is an ace to fill up the A8. Presto, one buyin down.
So, after a quick rebuy there's only a few more smaller hands of note, there was alot of general bad fortune during the session. Alot of spots where I would raise with a hand like AK, AQ, and not only wiff flops but find myself OOP in multiway pots holding those cards and the flop would be too terrible to even c-bet or try and run a bluff on(K/10/8 with 2 diamonds or something).
I did win one coin flip with AK vs QQ to restore some of the loss, then wound up bluffing off alot of that restored loss in what was a great spot for me, just more bad fortune.
The hand was, I had 3s/4s on the button, there was a big fish(bad player but not necessarily a calling station, just a generally bad player) in the BB. I raised to $20, he called. Flop was Jd/7h/5d. He checked, I bet $35, he called. Turn was a great card to barrel, Ac. He checked, I bet $80, he called. The river wasn't the best card, an 8d completing a flush and a few goofy straight draws. However, he checked once again, which I knew meant he didn't have any of those hands, he was deffinitely not the type of player that would be checking back a made hand he drew to. At this point I figured my read of him being weak(a 7 or a 5) or drawing was alot more complete, because I could rule out any draw that got there on the river, and I was left with just a 7 or a 5 as his potential holdings. My only concern as I decided to bluff the river was there was an outside chance he had a hand like 8/7 which would now have to call after spiking a 2nd pair on the river(or at least probably would call given his general fishiness). So I barrelled $150 at him, and he called with 8/5. Like I said, I think my read was strong and I think it's a great spot to be barelling as the board kept running worse and worse, unfortunately he improved his hand on the river without hitting a draw to lead at me, but hit the river enough to be in check call mode instead of check fold.
All told I dumped $500, but I actually got a real motivation to get going at the live play again and get back into the swing of poker. I've been neglecting it for quite a while now, I can't wait to get back into it more fully in a few weeks. Look forward to regularily updating this blog when I start.
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